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I Just Wanna Watch TV (part 24)

As you’ve probably guessed by now, nobody called me back after that last check in. So, I figured it was time to try to talk to someone in person. Last night, I checked in with my local Best Buy (the actual location where I purchased the TV.)

I explained the situation… His first reply was to just bring it in and we’ll take care of it. Bzzt, this is an in home plan, getting that very heavy tv repaired is your problem. He took my warranty documentation and disappeared for a while. A few minutes later he was dialing up someone and waving me over to the phone.

I didn’t see the number he dialed, but I’m guessing it was the same exact number that I was using. He said he was an employee and he was trying to help some get service. Amusingly, there’s not much of a security process to validate you’re an actual employee. The only non-public info he told them was the store number. Maybe I’ll pretend to be an employee next time and see if that gets me any further.

After obviously being placed on the hold (been there myself), he chats it up with a service tech and tries to explain the situation. After a few more minutes, he hands the phone over to me and says that the tech wants to talk to me. This can’t be good…

I chat with a tech named Eli for a bit. He confirms my details and then starts down the path of what’s the problem with your TV, blah blah blah. I’m severely irritated at this point because this is the kind of stuff that should be in my original service request. I said, forget that crap, my problem is that you guys should know all this stuff already and the real problem is that your local service center never calls me back as promised.

Eli says to hold on and he’ll do a conference call between us and the local service center. I said yeah, that sounds good, but can I call you back from home, its hard to hear you in the middle of this store. He gave me his extension and said to use that get back to him.

So, I flew home and dialed up my favorite number again. The first humanoid directing calls said that they can’t route to an extension, then assured me that someone in the service department could redirect me. Ok, whatever.

Another 10 minutes of Zamfir’s pan pipes and a service tech pickups. I tell him the situation and ask to be transfered to extension XXXXX. He says, OK, lemme try that… What a sec, extensions normally have 6 digits. Great, guess I won’t be talking to Eli again.

He starts down the whats your problem, blah blah blah route. He seems to understand the problem and puts me on hold while he looks up my account details. He says he’ll try calling the local service center directly and puts me on hold again.

He checks in a minute later and says that nobody is answering (which usually means I’m not really trying to call them, I’m just faking it) and to hold the line. He checks in again another minute later and asks if I have the number for the local service center. Ah, nope…

He then drops the bomb that I’ve been waiting all along. My local service center has nothing to do with Best Buy, its just a local electronics repair company (United Radio). I had this suspicion that there really never was a Best Buy repair team. He went on to say that he was forwarding them my details (which may take 24 hours to make it there) and that I should call them to make an appointment.

Part of my problem is I’m way too patient. I’m gonna give them until Monday before I call so I don’t get that sorry we didn’t get the paperwork excuse.

Next time, I’ll call UR first and tell them to bill the repair straight to Best Buy.